Well today went pretty smooth. 240 miles from home to Golden BC. I’ve been down this road a few times now so it was nothing new and I even recognized a few places from previous trips.
a few things happened that are worth noting but nothing crazy. First, I already made a friend. A fellow rider I met on ADVrider.com who happened to be riding the same route as me….for a couple days anyway. We will be riding together tomorrow to Jasper and then he is heading to the Cassiar highway and I am heading to Dawson Creek. But we will meet again in Whitehorse to head to D2D together. Its amazing how easy it is to meet people on a motorcycle. I also met some other riders at a gas station and talked for a while about where we were all headed, and while I was in a gas station parking lot I met this sweet little old Japanese man who saw my Idaho license plate and had to come over to tell me he won the lottery in Idaho yesterday……a whole $4 on a scratcher. Hahaha! He was so happy! I shook his hand and congratulated him on behalf of the state of Idaho.
Next thing, I somehow managed to run over a squirrel……I’ve never done that before on a bike and I just wanted to write it down for future me to be able to go “O YEAH! I hit a squirrel!”. the poor thing did the dumb dance where it can’t decide which way to go and then ran right under my tire at the last second. RIP canadian squirrel buddy.
And last thing, I already got to use my tools! There’s just something fun for me about getting to use my tools…..I think it makes me feel like “aw yeah I’m prepared for this” and I get a little full of myself. While I was riding along my speedometer suddenly went to zero and then my dash lit up like a Christmas tree. I had abs warnings, traction control warnings, the check engine light came on, and the info screen was flashing “major fault”. I won’t lie, I was pretty pissed. Day one and I’m already dealing with a broken bike?! I was worried I would have to do the whole trip with no traction control or abs, which, to be honest, I was not thrilled about…..I kind of like those features. I got so upset I just ignored the lights and warnings for about 50 miles while I over analyzed in my head thinking about all the horrible things that were probably the cause of the failure. Finally I pulled over at a gas station. As I sat there on the bike contemplating my life choices, the happiest little old man Ive ever met hurried over to introduce himself and tell me that he noticed my Idaho license plate and that he had won the lottery in Idaho last night…….we talked for a minute and I realized that I was cranky for no freaking reason. If that awesome old man could be so tuned up over a $4 scratcher then what on earth did I have to complain about. I stooped down and took about 30 seconds to look at my bike and found the problem. The front wheel speed sensor fell out…… 😐 When I replaced my front tire I must have forgotten to tighten the bolt for the sensor and it fell out. I grabbed my tool bag and fished out a spare bolt (cause I’m prepared and have those) and put the stupid sensor back in. I’m glad it was an easy fix but more importantly I’m glad for the attitude adjustment I received from Mr lottery.
Well…thats about it. Its day 1 so I’m just gonna dump a few pictures at the end here and call it good. maybe Ill be more organized later.
Don’t forget to check out the map and send me a message. Its raining and I’m stuck in my tent. https://share.garmin.com/TourmotoDesign
I’m doing quick videos for each day (that I’m able to) and I’m just going to drop them at the end of the blog posts. Here’s todays video.